7 days, 7 quotes: The Stone Roses, David Beckham and the Spice Girls

The Stone Roses play their first gig in 16 years,
David Beckham is left out of the Team GB Olympics football squad and the Spice Girls reunite to launch Viva Forever.

The Stone Roses are set to play their first gig in 16 years (Picture: Getty)

We’ve picked the most memorable quotes from across the news this week, including Mario Balotelli ‘s ‘beautiful night’ and David Cameron ‘s damning verdict on the Barclays rate-fixing scandal.

‘ Ian Brown is one of the most charismatic frontmen of all time and the rest of the band are incredible musicians.‘Going to see that as a kid is going to be massively inspiring. You’re gonna want to go back to your bedroom and write a song.’

Kasabian guitarist Serge Pizzorno believes the Stone Roses’ first gig in 16 years at Heaton Park in Manchester this weekend could help inspire a generation.

David Beckham will not feature at the Olympics (Picture: AP /Kirsty Wigglesworth)‘Naturally I am very disappointed, but there will be no bigger supporter of the team than me.‘And like everyone, I will be hoping they can win the gold.’

England’s most-capped player of all time David Beckham reacts after failing to make the cut for Stuart Pearce ‘s Team GB squad for this summer’s London Olympic Games.

Spice Girls Mel B, Mel C, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham reunited to launch Viva Forever (Picture: PA)‘From the minute we talked about having the musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls it was just the thought of having our songs performed night after night by wonderful, talented cast members in a great theatre in the West End, hopefully all over the world. That’s so exciting.’

The Spice Girls reunited for the first time in four years this week to launch new West End musical Viva Forever, with Melanie Chisholm hoping it will reach a worldwide audience.

David Cameron wants answers after Barclays was fined £290million (Picture: PA)‘The whole management team [at Barclays] have got some serious questions to answer. This is a scandal. It is extremely serious.’

PM David Cameron wants answers after Barclays bank was fined a record £290million for ‘serious and widespread’ misconduct after being found guilty of manipulating banking lending rates.

This CGI image shows F1 cars racing by Buckingham Palace‘With the way things are, maybe we would front it and put the money up for it. If we got the okay and everything was fine, I think we could do that. It would be fantastic, good for London, good for England – a lot better than the Olympics.’

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone lends his support to proposed £35m plans to stage a Grand Prix through the streets of London.

The Queen shakes hands with Martin McGuinness (Picture: PA)‘There was a lot of talk in the past about someone feeling the hand of history on his shoulder.‘This is about stretching-out the hand of peace and reconciliation to Queen Elizabeth who represents hundreds of thousands of unionists in the north.’

Northern Ireland’s Martin McGuinness reveals his feelings on a historic handshake with the Queen, hailed as ‘a momentous step forward for Anglo-Irish relations’.

Simply the chest: Balotelli celebrates the first of his goals (Picture: Getty)‘After the game, when I went to my mum I said “these goals are for you”.‘I waited for this moment for so long and I wanted to make my mum happy. Tonight was the most beautiful of my life.’

Italian striker Mario Balotelli dedicates his two semi-final goals against Germany at Euro 2012 to his mother.